Judge in Case about ICE Access to Courthouses Should Ask That It Be Reassigned
By Andrew R. Arthur and Meredith Lapp on June 5, 2019
In Ryan v. ICE, state prosecutors in Massachusetts have joined with public defenders and "civil litigants" to sue Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for making arrests of aliens subject to removal at state courthouses. Assigned to hear the case is Judge Indira Talwani of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The choice, although random, is interesting, because Judge Talwani has made well-publicized statements objecting to ICE courthouse arrests. To eliminate any questions of impartiality, Judge Talwani should ask that case be reassigned.
Specifically, Law360 reported that on April 25, 2018, Judge Talwani complained to a federal prosecutor that he "should have stopped" plain-clothes ICE officers who were attending sentencing proceedings in the case of a Chinese national who had admitted to visa fraud. Those officers arrested the student as soon as she left the building after being sentenced to a year probation. The judge reportedly stated, in open court, "I am upset at the notion that ICE thinks a courtroom is a place to go and pick up people." She further opined (again, apparently in open court): "I see no reason for places of redress and justice to become places that people are afraid to show up."
https://cis.org/Arthur/Judge-Case-about-ICE-Access-Courthouses-Should-Ask-It-Be-Reassigned
